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Wednesday, July 6, 2016

Caramel Balayage | Behind the Instagram

I have been doing more hair coloring recently, and I thought that it would be fun to talk a little about the pictures I post to Instagram and tell you what I did and what I could possibly do better.

This post is the first one in my Behind the Instagram series. I will be doing this for some of my favorite Instagram pictures.

During the consultation for this color she told me that she wanted to have a caramely blonde balayage that would transition into an ombre at the ends. She also wanted a haircut to match her new color.

This client came in with virgin hair at a natural level 3(warm) and the length was about to the middle of her back. Before I did the color I dry cut about 5 inches off the length. This is a great way to make sure you are not wasting color/lightener. If I would have done the color first and then the cut, I would have probably cut off all her ombre ends.

A good tip when getting to know what the guest wants is to make sure you know exactly everything she wants and you can even suggest things that maybe the guest might not have thought of. Make sure to cover all the bases before starting any service. This will make it very easy to know what to do and when.

Once I had the base of the cut done, then I went in with the lightener. When it comes to a balayage or ombre, the key is to make the light and dark colors blend seamlessly together.

I always try to work off of the clients natural color as much as possible. This sort of color can work wonders for people that don't have the time or desire to be at the salon getting their re-growth touched up every 4 weeks.

Unlike traditional highlights, balayage highlights don't go the whole way up to the scalp. This gives it a very soft natural look to the color, and makes it grow out beautifully.

Since this client has a smaller head, and about medium to fine hair I was able to take inch and a half sections. starting from the back nape of her head and working my way up.

I sectioned off a mohawk section from her forehead to her crown. The rest of the hair I section in a regular T part.

The trick to blending the highlights into an ombre is to grip the hair as tight as possible, then add the most lightener to the midshaft of the hair in a V or W shape, very carefully blending the lightener up the hair shaft up to where you want the highlights to start. Then making sure that the ends are completely saturated. I like to keep the lightener only on the surface of the section that I am working on, only saturating the ends of the hair. This will make the blend between the natural color and the lightened color seamless.

After the lightener was applied, I watched it process to make sure it gets to the color I want it to be.

Once it was done, I washed and conditioned her hair then finished her haircut by giving her long layers to compliment the color.

Since this client had virgin hair, I didn't have to tone the color to get to the desired shade.

Overall, I really liked how this color turned out. The blend between the lighter color and her natural color is completely seamless.